Posts Tagged ‘Meretz’

(JNi.media) MK Isawi Frej (Meretz) on Tuesday night came to the ultra-Orthodox enclave of B’nei B’rak to meet with two senior Haredi rabbis, Rabbi Shimon Baadani of the Council of Torah Sages of Shas, and Rabbi Mordechai Gross, of the Lithuanian community, Kikar Hashabbat reported. The issue at hand was the ultra-Orthodox veto on a Frej bill calling for including at least one woman among the Qadis-Muslim jurists in Israeli courts that operate under Sharia Law. The bill is also sponsored by MKs Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Camp-Labor) and Aida Touma-Sliman (Joint Arab List).

The ultra-Orthodox opposition to Frej’s bill stems from their fear that appointing women as Muslim Qadis might create a precedent to would force rabbinical courts to follow suit. The government is expected to object to the bill, based on the coalition agreement between Likud and the Haredi parties giving them veto power over religious legislation. MK Frej asked for the meeting with the rabbis in B’nei B’rak to try and change their minds.

However, despite the unusual gesture, both Rabbis Baadani and Gross did not offer Frej the breakthrough he was seeking. “A woman cannot be a court judge according to the Torah,” Rabbi Gross explained, “so there can’t be an allowance to support appointing women as Islamic judges.” Frej told his hosts that “only the ultra-Orthodox opposition is likely to thwart the appointment of a woman to this job.”

MK Frej used the opportunity of the meeting to speak with the rabbis about the tense security situation. Among other things, he quoted from a publication of the Israel Democracy Institute that “the most negative attitude toward the Arab sector is prevalent in the religious and ultra-Orthodox communities.” He asked the rabbis to suggest ways “for each of us to emphasize the love of goodness and the love of mankind.” In response, Rabbi Baadani spoke about his grandson who was killed a year ago in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, and said: “We need to speak with Minister Aryeh Deri to organize something.”

Frej told Kikar Hashabbat that although he did not receive the message he was hoping for from the rabbis, he plans to continue “knocking on every door until I get what I want.” He said, “My religious law allows it, and I should not have to be a captive of another religious law. We need to be independent and I believe in the righteousness of my way. I will continue my fight inside the Haredi society and in society in general. I’m here to do my work faithfully.”

Meanwhile, the Commission for the Appointment of Qadis in Israel—in which MK Frej is a member—is scheduled to vote soon on five new appointments to the Sharia Courts. As of today, 11 male Qadis serve in regional Sharia courts and in the Court of Appeals in Israel.

Several Opposition Knesset Members and at least one coalition MK have signed a letter that demands that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cancel a scheduled Dec. 28 meeting with Donald Trump during the Republican presidential candidate’s planned visit.

The Prime Minister has said he will meet with Trump, but aides have been careful to point out that he does not necessarily agree with Trump’s views.

The gadfly GOP presidential candidate raised the rafters Monday when he said that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

Opposition Knesset Members figure that If Trump can say “No Muslims,” they can say, “No Trump.”

Meretz MK, Esawi Frej and an Arab, said:

Just as it is clear Israel wouldn’t allow a hater of the Jews to use it in order to advance his political wares, the same must be in the case of Trump.

Trump is not just a racist; he is a man who poses a threat to the free world. A man who through racist incitement tries to gain the post of US president. A man whose presence in the public sphere is based on racism.

The state of Israel cannot let Trump enter, particularly given his intentions to use his visit for political propaganda. This is a man who incites against a public (Arabs] that represents 20% of the population of the state of Israel, a man who asks to incite flames and hatred in every place he visits.

At least two MKs grabbed the headlines Wednesday and demanded that Trump be barred from the Knesset, although he has no plans to visit, at least not this time around. That caudal change if he were to be elected President of the United States.

Zionist Union MK Omer Bar Lev (tweeted Wednesday:

As far as it depends on me, this racist @realDonaldTrump should not be welcome in the @knessetisrael

Arab Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi called Trump a “neo-Nazi” on Twitter and added:

I asked the Speaker of the Knesset to prevent Trump from entering the Knesset.

Opposition leader Yitzchak Herzog has said nothing and probably will remain silent. He stated last month he is staying out of American politics after being asked how he would deal with Trump if he were elected to the White House.

In Britain, 105,000 people have signed a petition to ban Trump from entering the country, and the number is rising every minute

The online petition in Britain, whose population includes nearly 3 million Muslims, states:

The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech.

If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the ‘unacceptable behavior’ criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful.

There are no predictions here of what will happen tomorrow, or next week when the United Nations flies its peace process into Israel, or next month.

Calm might be restored today, or maybe not, but two things are for sure:

1. Israel, the most stable country in the Middle East, will remain Israel.

2. The Palestinian Authority will remain an unstable prop until the time comes when the world no longer sees it as an effective tool against Zionism.

Until then, it is important to understand events without blinders.

The Palestinian Authority is an organization of murderers, not terrorists.

World leaders and media, including ourselves, will continue to report on “terror,” but in fact, the Palestinian Authority is not sponsoring terror, a word which no longer has a clear definition. It used to mean the use of violence and coercion to achieve political gains. The Irgun, led by Menachem Begin during the British Mandate, was labeled as a terrorist gang because it bombed British positions with the clear motivation of re-establishing the State of Israel.

The Palestinian Authority does not want to create a new Arab state because it wants one. Its objective, and the only aim of the Arab world since the re-birth of Zionism, has been to destroy Israel as a Jewish state.

Everyone will continue to report on terror, but in fact, the Palestinian Authority is a criminal entity that is rife with drug smuggling, arms smuggling and corruption. It is a mafia that encourages and often is directly involved in murdering Jews.

–The Palestinian Authority can’t exist without Israel.

The regime in Ramallah is a state on paper. It has institutions, all of them corrupt; it has a flag at the United Nations, which is bankrupt morally; it is a welfare state dependent on the European Union and the United States; and it would be in a civil war if it weren’t for Israeli intelligence that helps Abbas stay alive.

The current violence is destroying whatever is left of the Left.

There has been a clear change in the tone and content counter-terror of Israel’s major media outlets, which successfully campaigned for the Oslo Accords, for the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and for the release of thousands of terrorists in order to receive of dead bodies and a few that stayed alive, such as Gilad Shalit

The major media outlets do not run the country but they certainly reflect the voice of the “government of Tel Aviv,” best represented by the old Labor party that now calls itself the “Zionist Camp.”

Even before this week’s attempted murders of Jews in Tel Aviv, Petach Tikvah and Kiryat Gat, Yediot Acharonot, Israel’s largest daily, and the so-called Voice of Israel Radio (Reshet Bet), the most popular radio network, had changed their tune.

The Palestinian Authority propaganda and lies concerning the Temple Mount, have been too much for the center-left to swallow.

Secular as they are, they are sincere Jews who cannot justify or ignore the blatant anti-Semitism and racism among Israeli Arab Knesset Members who claim that the Jews have absolutely no rights on the Temple Mount and that the holy site belongs to Muslims and only to Muslims.

The only ones left on the left are the tiny minds, such as that of Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On, who this week condemned violence by Arabs and Israelis but in the end concluded it all is because of the “occupation.”

The Left exists as a small minority. The center-left is leaderless, as proven by Herzog’s pitiful and shameful arrogance this week in his insistence that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should resign because of the wave of violence.

Our worst enemy is ourselves.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s order that not only Cabinet Ministers but also all Knesset Members cannot visit the Temple Mount is infuriating to religious Zionists but is smart. With all due respect to Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Minister Uri Ariel, one of the most intellectually honest politicians alive today, the Third Temple will not be rebuilt by politicians and right-wing media, so just keep praying.

Netanyahu also sent the “settler” movement into a rage Thursday night with his statement that “this is not the time to build new settlements.”

But the man has a bit more on his shoulders than we do. The right-wing certainly should protest and demand that Jews can build wherever they want in Judea and Samaria, but the demonstrations should start and end there. No Jew should bully himself onto a hilltop and clash with the police or soldiers.

Yes, a new Jewish community is the right answer to every terrorist attack in Judea and Samaria. It can be done only if there is full backing of the country, and we are not there yet.

Whether the chicken or egg comes first, Israel does not live alone. Yes, we need a stronger spine, but it has to be a spine that is not propped up with an artificial brace. Like it or not. Netanyahu is right. [This is not necessarily the position of the Jewish Press.com.]

This is not the time to throw sand in the eyes of the United Nations and President Barack Obama, but keep protesting so that Netanyahu does not forget that being right today does not mean he is right tomorrow.

And when will the violence end?

It began more than century ago, and it comes and goes in waves. A generation and a half of Arabs, both within and beyond the Palestinian Authority, has grown up with an education of hatred of Jews and Zionism.

Thank God, Israeli security forces have caught almost every terrorist, make that murderer or attempted murderer. Those that were killed won’t attack again.

The more the police and the IDF educate the rioters, the safer we will be and the sooner they will learn that their hate hurts themselves more than anyone else.

The lion and the lamb are at peace with each other in the Knesset, at least for a day.

Hareidi Knesset Member Yaakov Litzman took the pledge of allegiance to the government Wednesday and became the first Ashkenazi Hareidi minister since the days of the Ben-Gurion government.

He said at the swearing-in ceremony:

“I, Yaakov Litzman, pledge…to be faithful to the government of Israel and to its laws.”

Unlike the Shas Hareidi party, Yehadut HaTorah (United Torah Judaism) has refrained from allowing its Knesset Members to become a full-fledged Cabinet minister, which would obligate them to government decisions.

Until today, the prohibition was carried out with a wink and a nod by virtue of simply allowing a UTJ MK to hold the position of “Deputy Minister” without being subordinate to a minister. In Litzman’s case, he has been “Deputy Health Minister” but a de facto minister, reporting to no one but himself and without being a member of the Cabinet.

The High Court put an end to the practice by agreeing with a complaint that there cannot be a “de facto minister.”

Torah sages last week met and agreed to allow Litzman to become a full-fledged member of the Cabinet. Today’s swearing-in ceremony was applauded by most of the opposition, including Merav Michaeli, one of the most leftist and secular members of the Zionist Camp party headed by Yitzchak Herzog.

The party, the result of a merger of the Labor party and the faction that was headed by Tzipi Livni, was part of the overwhelming majority in the 83-10 vote in favor of the appointment of Litzman.

Yisrael Beiteinu, headed Avigdor Lieberman, voted against the appointment, as did Meretz, which added that it had nothing personal against the Hareidi MK.

(JNi.media) Has the LGBT community succeeded in doing to the Labor party what Moshe Feiglin wanted to do to Likud—take it over from the inside? Zionist Camp (Labor) MKs are claiming that they were required by the Party to mobilize in an unprecedented way in support of the LGBT community, NRG reported Friday.

“They told us to go to every LGBT event and to put the LGBT rainbow flag on our Facebook page,” revealed the MKs, who said they felt the pressure from party chairman Yitzhak Herzog’s office as well.

MKs who have been working for years to bring back to the party its right-wing voters, saw an event such as the Saturday night rally in Tel Aviv’s Gan Meir—a renowned homosexual hangout that was picked for that reason—as setting back their cause.

The event, in reaction to the fatal stabbing of a teenager during the gay pride parade in Jerusalem the previous Thursday, was declared an opportunity to promote tolerance and acceptance—but ended up rejecting Bayit Yehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett, who had agreed to an invite to speak at the rally but was later told to stay home.

But Labor MKs were less upset with Bennett’s orchestrated public humiliation than they have been, apparently, with their own. Several MKs told NRG that over this past week they were required, along with their followers, to mobilize on behalf of the gay community and to promote its agenda.

According to these MKs, the directives came from all over the party, including the “Labor Youth” and the party’s young guard; but also from the office of party chairman MK Yitzhak (Bujhi) Herzog, and the office of the Knesset Labor whip Merav Michaeli’s office.

Some Labor MKs described threats from party activists, who promised political damage to MKs who chose not to tow the party line on this issue.

“They urged the MKs to be present at any event that was somehow tied to the gay community,” one Labor MK told NRG, adding, “Since the terrible murder took place in the gay pride parade in Jerusalem, there has been demand for a total enlistment from all of us. They simply informed us that we were expected to upload Facebook statuses related to the LGBT community. They told us to change our profile picture and put the rainbow flag in it, and to participate in all sorts of gay community projects initiated by the party’s young guard and Labor Youth.”

Other sources in the party claimed that MKs were required to increase their media statements promoting legislation favoring the gay community and its agenda.

“There’s a feeling that the Meretz agenda has taken over the party this week,” one Labor MK told NRG.

One MK reported: “As early as last Saturday night, I have received four requests to upload all kinds of statuses—and they were stated as demands. These notes came from almost everyone — from Labor Youth, from the young guard, from the party spokesperson’s office, and from Herzog’s office, too.”

“People told me you’d better do it, or you’ll will pay a price in the primaries. Many party activists belong to the gay community, and the LGBT involvement in the party is very substantial,” the MK said.

The same MK said he hadn’t seen this level of demand for enlistment to a cause outside an actual election campaign.

Another MK said he was angry about the direction the party followed this week. “We are not Meretz, but a major, centrist party with a plethora of agendas,” he noted. “It cannot be that of all these agendas would bow down before just one. After all, we want to establish a future coalition with the Ultra-Orthodox. How exactly would we do that when [the gay agenda] becomes our flag? As soon as Herzog and Tzipi Livni become fully mobilized in support of an issue, it keeps away population groups we want to attract in the future. Those who do not agree with that agenda have no way to express their opinion. Even some of us who support gay organizations still think they crossed a line here.”

The left-wing Meretz party, the one whose former Education Minister ruled out learning the Book of Joshua because it describes wars, is worried about the “danger” of national religious Naftali Bennett heading the ministry.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is considering Bennett as the next Minister of Education after Bennett gave up his demand to be Foreign Minister or Defense Minister.

Former Meretz chairman and Education Minister banned the Book of Joshua from the school system because it describes the successful wars fought by the Jewish People after they entered Israel.

Current Meretz leader Zehava Galon now wants to ban Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party, from heading the ministry because he probably will fund religious schools no less than secular schools.

That would be undemocratic, according to the leftist definition of the word, by which any public money to promote Judaism comes at the expense of promoting democracy, which apparently is not only a religion in itself but also is the only religion.

Galon wrote on Facebook:

It is dangerous and irresponsible to place the Education portfolio in the hands of Naftali Bennett. Last year outrageous information showed that the Ministry of Education invested 56 million shekels ($14 million) in organizations linked with the study of Jewish values ​​compared to only 5.5 million shekels for those that promote democratic values. It is painful and frightening to imagine what those numbers will look like next year if Naftali Bennett will be appointed.

Her argument promotes the idea that Judaism contradicts democracy and vice-versa.

Sarid hates the Book of Joshua because it deals with reality. Sarid forgets that Israel fought wars only when the “peace process” did not work.

He told the Jerusalem Post he was “disgusted” at the idea of Bennett as Minister of Education.

Galon wrote that if Bennett will be the minister of Education, she will be looking over his right shoulder all the time to check where every shekel is allocated and perhaps how many copies of the Book of Joshua are bought for schools.

The Book of Joshua not only describes war and peace. It also includes the command of God to set up cities of refuge:

Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Prepare for you cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses To which a slayer that kills any person unawares, unwittingly, shall flee and they shall be for you as a refuge from the avenger of blood.

What democracy other than Israel has such a principle that embodies the heart and soul of leftist ideology?

The Israeli political system is radically different from the one in the United States. The most obvious differences are that Israel is a parliamentary system with more than 20 potential parties in the mix, unlike just the two standard American parties, the Democrats and the Republicans.

This year 26 parties are vying for positions in the upcoming vote, 11 of which are likely to pass the threshold requirement for becoming part of the next Knesset.

The first step of this year’s Israeli election to determine who makes it into the Knesset at all, then which parties will form the governing coalition, and finally, who will be the prime minister of the state of Israel, takes place next Tuesday, March 17.

The date was set by a formal meeting in early December, of all the then-current Knesset party leaders. Those leaders chose the date for the election to take place in just four months. While four months is a dramatically short campaign period by American standards, Israeli law permits only five months to elapse between the dissolution of one Knesset and the election for the next.

Election day is a big deal in Israel. Virtually everything, except the polling places, is closed. Free transportation is provided for any voter who needs it to reach their regular polling place.

On March 17, all eligible voters – every Israeli citizen over 18 years of age – can vote. That includes Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Jews, men and women, able-bodied and those with disabilities. There is no voter registration system; every citizen is automatically registered once they turn 18. Nearly six million Israelis are eligible to vote in this year’s election.

MARCH 17: THE BALLOT BOX

Eligible Israeli voters go to polling places in their neighborhoods. There are more than 10,000 polling places throughout this tiny country. Most open at 7:00 a.m. and remain open until 10:00 p.m.

Turnout for Israeli elections has been declining for years, but it’s still well over 60 percent. In the U.S., turnout has been in the low-to mid 50 percent zone since the early 1970’s.

Before entering the voting booth, each voter is handed an envelope. Inside the booth is a tray, with different strips of paper. Each strip of paper includes the name and symbol of a party. The voter chooses the slip of paper which has the name and symbol of the party for whom they wish to vote, and puts that piece of paper in the envelope they were handed. After leaving the booth the voter places the envelope with their chosen party slip into the ballot box.

Israeli voters choose parties, not individual candidates, which, among other things, means their national representation is ideological, not geographic, and the vote is proportional, meaning the 120 Knesset seats are divvied up in proportion to each party’s percentage of the total vote. There is a minimum threshold for a party to meet before it can sit in the Knesset. That minimum is currently set at 3.25 percent of the total votes cast, which translates into four seats.

PHASE TWO: HORSE TRADING

Once the polling places close and the ballots are counted, the second phase of the Israeli election begins, the one frequently described as “horse trading.” In order to have the right to form a government and choose the prime minister, a group of parties needs to be able to control a majority of the Israeli Knesset, the single chamber Israeli legislature. The Knesset has 120 seats.

With so many parties competing, no single one has ever attained that magic number of 61 seats, and it is even likely that three or more parties need to agree to work together to form the ruling coalition. Therefore, parties which have been thrashing each other in public now start eying each other as potential dance partners, trying to figure out with whom they can create a functioning coalition to run the government.

This coalition building phase is a little bit like when, after a brutal primary in the U.S., the second place vote getter and the winner frequently kiss, make up, and agree to live with each other as their party’s candidate for president and vice president during the general election. But several different parties and lots of individual members of those parties are all added into the Israeli decision making mix. It isn’t easy.

But first let’s back up. How were the individuals on each party’s list chosen?

PARTY LISTS

As soon as the Knesset is dissolved, either because it reached its four year expiration date, or because it is dispersed for some other reason (such as happened in the current case, when Prime Minister Netanyahu asked the Knesset to disperse and the Knesset unanimously agreed, on Dec. 8), the parties begin internal negotiations to determine who will be on their official “list,” and in what order. The higher up on the list one is, the greater the likelihood of actually making it into the Knesset.

There are various systems for determining who are included, and where they are placed, on each party’s list, including voting by the party leadership. Additional factors are taken into consideration, such as whether enough women are included, whether there are security experts represented, whether certain ethnic minorities will be included.

PRIME MINISTER SELECTION

How does one of the party members then become the prime minister? Israel’s president, currently former Knesset member Ruby Rivlin, selects the member of Knesset believed to have the best chance of forming a viable coalition government, given the election results. This can take some time until the parties are able to align so that they can govern together.

Some of the horse trading here involves party leaders with high numbers demanding significant ministry positions in exchange for pledging their party’s support. Compare this to the ability of the U.S. president, once elected, then deciding who will become the various cabinet members.

This phase is incredibly complicated. For example, right now at least five different parties will be needed to join together to create a ruling coalition. And it is not as if just the top five vote-getting parties will join together, because of differences in ideology.

For example, the tiny far left Meretz party, which currently is polling at five seats, thought it would be able to create a power bloc by pairing up with the Joint Arab List. The Arab group dashed those hopes, claiming they would not join with “Zionists.”

Another complicating factor is that certain parties have claimed they will not join in a coalition with Netanyahu, and the Likud has ruled out creating a coalition with other parties, including the current frontrunner, the so-called “Zionist Union.” That party is a joining together of the center-left Labor party and Tzipi Livni and her entourage. Livni has changed parties so many times in the past few years most people just refer to this new party as Labor-Livni.

Once finally selected, the prime minister announces the formation of a new Knesset and the offices each minister will hold.

January 29 was the deadline for all parties to submit their lists of candidates. As of that date, the following parties had the following members in the following order (the parties are listed in terms of their most recent polling status):

KULANU (1) Moshe Kahlon (2) Yoav Galant (3) Eli Alalouf (4) Michael Oren (5) Rachel Azaria (6)Tali Ploskov (7) Dr. Yifat Shasha-Biton (8) Eli Cohen (9) Roy Folkman (10)Merav Ben-Ari. Kulanu is a brand new party created by its number one on the list. Kahlon is understood to have destroyed the cell phone monopoly in Israel. Kahlon has not ruled out joining with Likud or Zionist Union. His determination to be the next finance minister is well-known. Kulanu has been polling around 8 – 10 seats.

YISRAEL BEITEINU (1) Avigdor Lieberman (2) Orly Levy-Abekasis (3) Sofa Landver (4) Ilan Shohat (5) Sharon Gal (6) Hamad Amar (7) Robert Ilatov. Yisrael Beiteinu is identified with the Russian immigrants and is considered right wing, although it does not believe in annexing Judea and Samaria. It has been polling at 5 seats for quite some time.

Other parties which are not expected to reach the threshold number of votes include the Green Party, the Green Leaf (legalize marijuana) Party, Rent with Honor Party, the Economics Party, a Charedi Women’s Party (called Ubezchutan) and even something called the Pirate Party. Gotta love Israelis.

JewishPress.com will post another primer once the elections reach the second phase: assembling the ruling coalition.